A software activation process may be performed on a processing device in order to enable functionality of a software application to be executed on the processing device. During the software activation process, the processing device may generate binding information, which may indicate one or more characteristics of the processing device. The processing device may prompt a user to enter a product code, with respect to a product including the software application. After receiving the product code, the processing device may provide a software license key, associated with the software application, along with the binding information, which may be passed to an authorization authority, such as, for example, a server. In response to receiving the software license key and the binding information, the authorization authority may provide an authorization code for the processing device. After receiving the authorization code, the processing device may unlock or enable the functionality of the software application. Exchange of the software license key, the binding information, and the activation code between the processing device and the authorization authority may occur over different media, such as, for example, a telephone, the Internet, or other media. Regardless of which media is used, the software license key provided to the authorization authority remains unchanged.
Typically, the software license key may be long for security reasons. When the software license key is to be passed via some media, such as, for example, the telephone, or other media, the user may manually provide the software license key. Manually providing a long software license key may be a tedious and error prone process.